Court ruling means house arrest terror suspects could be freed

Terrorism suspects under house arrest could be freed after the House of Lords ruled they must be shown secret evidence against them or be released.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent

7:00AM BST 11 Jun 2009

The Home Office will now have to decide whether to disclose information that could compromise national security to suspects who are subject to the orders which require them to stay in their homes for up to 16 hours a day or let them go.

In some cases revealing the intelligence will put informants at risk and in others the information will have come from foreign countries and Britain will be unable to release it.

The Law Lords said they had not choice but to make the ruling following a decision made by the European Court of Human Rights that found suspects' rights to a fair trial were being breached by withholding such secret information.

However, they warned it could lead to the breakdown of the controversial control order system brought in by the Government in 2005.

Lord Hope of Craighead said the country "must be entitled to defend itself against those who would destroy its freedoms" but if there were a significant number of cases where infromation could not be disclosed "the fact must simply be faced that the system is unsustainable."

Related Articles

Alan Johnson, the new Home Secretary said the ruling was "extremely disappointing" and made the job of protecting the public harder.

At least one of the 20 suspects, who will be affected by the ruling, is considered a "terrorist mastermind" linked to al-Qaeda who controlled a cell planning suicide attacks.

Another was allegedly linked to the failed July 21 suicide attacks in London in 2005.

Under existing control order procedures, intelligence can be heard behind closed doors in hearings attended only by a High Court judge, prosecutor and a "special advocate" representing the suspect.

The suspect is not allowed to know what information is being put as part of the case against him and in some instances the cases are based almost entirely on such secret information.

The House of Lords has now ruled that the judge will have to decide how much to disclose to the suspects.

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry issued a one paragraph ruling, concluding: "Strasbourg has spoken, the case is closed."

Lord Scott of Foscote said the government had been unwilling to accept the "political consequences" of accepting that the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2005 might be incompatible with the Human Rights Act.

The Home Secretary said protecting the public was his "top priority" and added: "This judgment makes that task harder."

Mr Johnson said all control orders would remain in force while the government tried to uphold them in the courts, but they were introduced to "limit the risk posed by suspected terrorists whom we can neither prosecute nor deport" and part of the procedure relied on "sensitive intelligence material" which could not be disclosed in open court.

Control Orders were introduced under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2005 after a previous ruling by the House of Lords that detention of foreign suspects without trial was unlawful.

Since then 38 people have been subject to the regime, of whom seven have absconded. The law bans the naming of the suspects and details are not made public unless they challenge the orders.

There are now 20 suspects held under house arrest, of whom six are British citizens. The Government has taken the decision not to deport the foreign nationals on security grounds.

The latest case was brought by three suspects – AF a dual British and Libyan national with "alleged links to Islamist extremists," AN, a British citizen born in Derby allegedly involved in "attack planning and facilitation of the participation by extremists in terrorism-related activities overseas" and AE, an Iraqi national with "considerable jihadi pedigree" who had taken part in "both terrorist training and activities" abroad.

Each man argued that he was entitled to "be told sufficient of the case against him to enable him to challenge that case."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the campaign group Liberty, said control orders do not protect the public and added: "Dangerous terrorists should not be in their living rooms but convicted and imprisoned. Innocent people should not be subjected to years and years of community punishment without trial."